News

Privacy Rights at Issue at USM Annual Lincoln-Douglas Debate

2/6/2014 12:00:00 AM

11:30 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 12 | Mead Hall Walnut Room

(Leavenworth, Kan.)—The University of Saint Mary continues its annual tradition of honoring the historic Lincoln-Douglas Debate with a spirited student debate at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 12, in the Mead Hall Walnut Room on USM’s Leavenworth campus, 4100 South 4th Street. For this year’s edition of the USM Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Saint Mary students will argue the merits of the government’s monitoring citizens in the name of national security.

The debate is a precursor to the annual Lincoln Event at USM, and is free and open to the public. The student debaters will argue before Kansas First Judicial District Judge Robert Bednar. Judge Bednar has overseen the last 12 USM Lincoln Douglas debates.

The participating students—Josh Cabezas, of Humble, Texas, Carolyn Ellis, of Alpine, Texas, Ana Gamboa, of Mission Viejo, Calif., and Joseph Griffith, of Wiesbaden, Germany—will emulate the historic debate styles of the event’s namesakes as they argue a subject that’s been in the public eye since Edward Snowden’s high-profile leaks.

USM’s event is inspired by the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858, which saw Abraham Lincoln engage in a series of debates with Stephen A. Douglas for one of Illinois’ U.S. Senate seats. Though Lincoln lost that election, the debates launched him into the national political spotlight.

As has become a university tradition, USM’s Lincoln-Douglas Debate is a prelude to the 16th Annual University of Saint Mary Lincoln Event. This year’s edition, set for 7 p.m. on Presidents’ Day—Monday, Feb. 17—in Xavier Theatre, features Topeka-based Civil War historians and lecturers Dr. Herschel Stroud and Jacque Stroud in a lively exploration of the Lincoln family, “Abe’s Descendants: A Journey through the Lincoln Family Album.”

The Lincoln Event is free and open to the public. The lecture is made possible by Country Club Bank of Leavenworth and Lansing, the event’s benefactor.